About 25 guitarists, bassists, fiddle players, singers and other musicians of varying experience and skill levels gathered at the Boulder Outlook Hotel on Saturday and within a few hours were deep into their first "trance" jam, thanks to help from local blues man Otis Taylor and 12 visiting professionals.

Saturday afternoon's workshop was part of the second annual Otis Taylor Trance Blues Jam Festival.

Taylor launched the workshop by explaining the basics of the trance blues style he embraces -- a style centered on creation of a basic groove that eschews chord changes while embracing improvisational soloing.

"To jam with people, the essence of it is to pay attention to someone other than yourself. And you want to surround yourself with people that listen," Taylor told the group. "Not everyone can be a performer, but everyone can sit in a room with friends and play music."

The session focused on getting the group to establish a groove -- consisting of one chord -- and play together in the "pocket," allowing each musician to take a turn with a solo. The participants paid $75 to be part of the workshop and attend Saturday night's All-Players Jam at the Dairy Center for the Arts.

Taylor said he hopes the young festival will grow and thrive in Boulder.

"It's about people playing with great, professional musicians up close and learning from them and people playing together," he said. "It's a sense of community."

During the workshop, there were occasional breaks in the jamming for questions and answers, helpful tips and even some humorous stories from the visiting artists, which included Indigenous guitarist Mato Nanji, renowned pedal steel guitarist Chuck Campbell, storied New Orleans jazz banjo player Don Vappie, and George Porter Jr., the original bassist of 1960s New Orleans funk precursors The Meters.

"The important part of this is we all are actually making an effort to pass on knowledge about what we do," Porter said.

Participants were a diverse bunch, including many young people and players of various instruments.

Boulder's Ann Cantelow, 63, jammed on her theremin, a electronic musical instrument that players manipulate by moving their hands near a pair of antennas, one controlling pitch and the other volume. Cantelow, who played organ in a blues band in college, went to the festival's Grand Jam at the Boulder Theater last year and decided to attend the workshop this year.

"(My favorite part) is listening to all of the musicians talk about what it's been like in their lives," Cantelow said. "I was looking for inspiration, and I think I found it."

Taylor's daughter, Cassie Taylor, a bassist, keyboardist and singer, was among the visiting artists, helping lead jams. She said her dad believes that everyone has a song inside him or her that could be a hit, and jamming with people can be a great outlet.

"I think he wants to pass on a positive message to people that you don't have to conform to certain musical elements," she said. "(Jamming) is a way for people to be encouraged."